The Sacramental and Priestly System EXAMINED; OR STRICTURES ON ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE'S WORKS ON THE Incarnation and Eucharist. BY CHARLES SMITH BIRD, M.A. F.L.S. CANON OF LINCOLN, AND VICAR OF GAINSBOROUGH, Seeleys, AND HANOVER STREET; MDCCCLIV. FLEET STREET LONDON PREFACE. ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE'S Works are important publications, and have had a rapid sale. His name that rich but "perilous inheritance," as his brother the Bishop of Oxford has significantly expressed it-and his position in the Church, secure them attention. The learning and ability he displays are considerable. There is much beauty, and much truth, scattered over their surface. His command of language, and poetical imagination, give a charm to his writing-though they tempt him to wander. The boldness of his Theory, concerning the Communication of our Lord's Humanity, is in his favour. It harmonizes with a tendency of the age. The astounding achievements of physical science have generated a vague impression that no discoveries are impossible. The chasm which separates what is physical from what is intellectual, and still b more from what is spiritual, is not sufficiently remembered. A Revelation does not admit of discoveries. If we are intended to know anything more than it already tells us concerning our relation to God and mode of access to Him, and our spiritual constitution, the intelligence must come from Him. But the recollection of this is often lost in the desire of what is new, and the expectation of some adventurous triumph in the regions of Theology. The very mysticism of the Archdeacon's books, though it is a grave fault in treating of a subject where the interests of all mankind are concerned, and though it is different from the tone and spirit of Scripture, is a recommendation of them to many. The strange and almost incredible accounts given to the public from time to time of the wonders of Mesmerism, and Clairvoyance, and other inexplicable agencies, have produced a love of the marvellous, and an unhealthy credulity, very much to be lamented. By these startling accounts, for which the public is taught to be daily looking, whether they be true or whether they be false, men's minds are prepared to quit a sober faith, which has nothing exciting to offer; and to embrace with eagerness any new mystery-or any long-forgotten one, re |